Achieving Your Perfect Wash And Go

A “perfect” wash and go is relative. What that means is that you define perfection for yourself depending on your hair type and your taste.

For instance I prefer my wash and go to be somewhat defined but big! Others may prefer their hair to be super defined, very neat and a bit tamed.

I guess what I am saying is, to be quite honest we cannot tell you what your perfect wash and go is, we can only tell you that at the end of it your hair should look and feel soft, moisturized and satisfactory to you.

With that said, what can I teach you with this post? Like I mentioned the perfect wash and go means that your hair feels moisturized and healthy at the end of the process, so this is where the basics of hair care become really important.

Here are the steps you need to take for a wash and go:

1. Clarify If Necessary

Shampoo is not the devil believe it or not, sometimes we need a good shampoo to get rid of all the gunk we put on our hair throughout the week or if you tend to wait 2 weeks to a month then clarifying might just be in order.

To clarify your hair you can simply use a shampoo that has sulfates in it or you can use a moisture based shampoo without sulfates and clarify with an Apple Cider Vinegar rinse, either way you will need to have clean hair and a clean scalp

2. Condition And Oil Rinse (optional)

Conditioning is where the moisture happens, so don’t be afraid to load your hair up with a great moisture based conditioner and if you have a little bit of time try doing a 20 – 30 minute deep condition using heat.

Your conditioner needs to have moisture based ingredients, the first one being water and it should also have great slip so that you can detangle easily at this point.

We mention oil rinses because they are a great way to seal in your moisture while you are still in the shower, they aren’t necessary for a great wash and go but they really do help you to retain moisture well.

After you are finished with conditioning, rinse your hair with one final rinse, pat dry with your micro fiber towel or t-shirt and add your leave in conditioner* in preparation for styling.

Don’t forget to test your products to see if your leave in conditioner* works well with your styling product/gel to avoid flakes.

3. Styling

Ok beauties, here is where your perfection happens. Styling your wash and go is dependent on a few things, how big you want your hair, your hair type, your likes and dislikes. Once your hair is thoroughly moisturized and sealed you can choose the styling product that works best for your hair.

► The Big Fluffy Wash And Go – Typically to get a big fluffy wash and go after you have conditioned and sealed your hair you will need to use minimal styling product.

There are some gels that are considered light weight in the sense that they provide some hold but they are not heavy to where your hair feels weighed down or becomes stringy.

Women with fine strands and thinner hair might opt for light hold styling so that they can manipulate their hair to make it appear bigger and less weighted in necessary.

Touching your hair as you dry can lead to it becoming bigger and less defined. A diffuser* can keep your curls intact but it also is great for creating volume if you turn your head upside down while you dry as well.

► The Defined Wash And Go – Some women prefer a very defined look to their wash and go, and to achieve that they may do what is called “shingling”. This just means grabbing small sections of hair and applying your styling product generously to the section before moving on to the next section. The hair is then allowed to air dry untouched.

Defining your curls in this manner allows you to show off your curl pattern in more of a dramatic form than you would if you just applied a light holding cream. When you allow the hair to set untouched it reduces frizz and ensures that your style lasts longer.

Women with type 4 hair may opt for this method because not only does shingling define curls it helps to keep the hair relatively tangle free as well.

There are of course other methods apart from shingling that can achieve the same result. The rake and smooth method which is similar to shingling or the praying hands method are all variations of the shingling method.

► Wash And Go Combined – This is just a combination of the above, where you are using light styling creams or gels and applying it in sections, probably not as small as if you were shingling but in an organized manner similar to shingling. Your hair will still be defined but will be fluffy and slightly big.

Tip: Getting that perfect wash and go will definitely require some product testing on your part so a good tip is to get sample sized instead of full sized products to test on sections of your hair until you find the combination that works for you.

Of course we could not leave a post like this hanging without some sort of demonstration, so we found two women, with very different textures and different ways of achieving their wash and gos.

Take a look and then comment below and let us know if you prefer a fluffy or super defined wash and go.

Here’s AfricanExport with her technique

And from SpiralsAndLife…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLYmR0a5Bi4

And from Mini Marley